ALMOST exactly eight years after American Pie stormed Britain, along comes the 21st century's nearest equivalent yet.

ALMOST exactly eight years after American Pie stormed Britain, along comes the 21st century's nearest equivalent yet.

Judd Appatow has already directed The 40 Year Old Virgin and current hit Knocked Up.

Now, as the producer of Superbad, he's fast cornering the gross-out genre thanks to this $25 million dollar outlay turning into a $100 million dollar hit in just four weeks.

Studio executives dream of figures like that.

Superbad has been written by and co-stars Seth Rogan, the Knocked Up bozo who somehow got a newsgirl pregnant.

Here, he plays one of two dimwitted cops on the trail of hormone-ravaged guys who naturally just want to eat, drink and have sex.

Mixing much of John Hughes' 1980s' back catalogue with everything from the dumber Super Troopers to the more charming American Pie, Superbad will have young audiences both sniggering and belly laughing.

The film is a half-decent rites of passage about two school friends.

Seth and Evan have an anxiety attack about their future in separate colleges beyond this final night out together.

Of the young leads, Seth (Jonah Hill, an Apatow regular, pictured) is too loud, while Evan (Arrested Development's Michael Cera) is, unfortunately, a deadringer for a young Arsene Wenger!

But newcomer Christopher Mintz-Plasse is spot on as their nerdy friend, Fogell - sporting just enough bespectacled edge to win you over.

Superbad often struggles as a series of over-extended sketches, and the film is overlong at 113 minutes.

But it will also be a definite icebreaker for frisky freshers everywhere.